At the age of 18, a person is considered to be an adult. As an adult, a person must act as one and take on more responsibilities at that golden age. Punishments also grow harsher as a teenager transitions into adulthood. Consequences are more strict and unyielding to those individuals. However, the majority of adult criminals started off as juvenile criminals in their teenage years. Despite how awful a teenager’s crime may be, they do not face the same penalties they would receive if they were an adult. Should a person get an easier sentence merely because of their age? They most certainly should not! Teenagers and minors in general, should always be tried as adults for their committed crimes. A number of minors who commit crimes such as rape, robbery, assault, murder and attempted murder are exempt from being tried in a criminal trial purely because of their age. As a result, many do not fear getting caught in the act of breaking the law. This would eventually create an uncontrollable habit of committing crimes. The government needs to enforce laws which would be beneficial towards those individuals. If minors know they would not get off easy, then they would be discouraged and be more cautious to abide by the law.
Many may argue that teenagers are too naïve to know right from wrong. They argue that pure rehabilitation and temporary confinement would do the trick. On the contrary, a lack of moral standards cannot be treated or cured in rehabilitation centers. Since birth, people learn to acknowledge right from wrong. Morals give people an unchangeable foundation in which they lead their lives. People either have morals or they don’t: there is no gray area. One may argue that morals are evident in one situation but not the other. Does this mean that one can pick and choose when they follow their moral compass? The law is not lenient to any offenders and it will never be. A devastating case was of Barry Loukaitis on February 2, 1996. He was dressed with 2 pistols, 78 rounds of ammunition and a rifle. His 1st victim was 14-year-old Manuel Vela who died. Another classmate fell with a bullet to his chest and then Loukaitis shot his teacher in the back as she was writing a problem on the blackboard. A 13-year-old girl took the 4th bullet in her arm. He took hostages, but a teacher put an end to it. Three people died total, and Loukaitis blamed mood swings. Loukaitis had thought it would be "fun" to go on a killing spree. Would it be justified if people like Barry Loukaitis get off with only minor fines because he was only 14 years old at the time?
The government is responsible for letting those individuals walk without even a scratch. It is no question that the government should take control to make laws charging teenagers who commit unforgivable felonies. It is then when our society would become more alert to abide by the law which in turn decreases crime rates.
2 comments:
I could not agree more with the blog posted by Sarah, concerning trying teenagers as adults. I particularly enjoyed her speedy approach into the depth of her argument. Throughout her article, she asks several rhetorical questions, which I believe allows a reader to become more involved personally in the article. Not to mention, when you become involved in articles that have some sort of educational material beyond who Jessica Simpson is dating now, your brain is forced to think, helping one discover their own beliefs, and even possibly, have a few unsupported beliefs tweaked.
The simplicity of the article is appealing to a reader. There is no complicated plot, no overuse of large and unnecessary scientific words, and no sign of ridiculous studies or polls reported over such a simple matter (being that these are commonly miscalculated and misleading anyways). She also does a fantastic job of supporting her opinion by using a sad and dramatic story that occurred in the last twenty years.
In addition to Sarah's argument that harsher consequences ought to be applied to underage felons, I am of the opinion that parents should also be held more responsible for their child's behavior. Recently, I discovered that foul language and disruptive behavior in public high school classrooms is resulting in the child's parents receiving a citation from the city police, in which they must pay money for. As many would guess, disruptive behavior and foul language is on the decline at schools where this is enforced. If it works for this, why would holding parents accountable in every other situation not work as well?
I applaud Sarah's argument and hope to see more legal action supporting this take place soon.
Sarah, I agree with your blog “Should a teenage be tried as adult.” I understand what you’re saying about crimes and teenager, but I honestly feel it does depend on the crime but also, the criminal justice system should give teenagers who commit heinous crimes the same punishments it bestows upon older offenders. Only then can justice truly be served and society protected from dangerous individuals
For example, you stated a case about Barry Loukaitis and his “mood swing killing spree”, I couldn’t agree more with that case that he should be tried as adult. That’s murder, of course. It doesn’t matter what age he is he killed three people! It’s also pretty rare now that you see people over the age of 15 tried as juveniles because the crimes they commit are so mature and disturbing that they simply can’t be tried as juveniles anymore. On the other hand, kids that steal and commit minor crimes should be tried as a teenager. Sarah makes an excellent point when you says, “A number of minors who commit crimes such as rape, robbery, assault, murder and attempted murder are exempt from being tried in a criminal trial purely because of their age. As a result, many do not fear getting caught in the act of breaking the law.” That pretty much sums everything up, she’s right! Being easy on those individuals isn’t going to help us at all.
The government IS responsible for letting those individuals walk without even a scratch. All in all, Sarah’s blog was well put together she made her points very vivid using a lot of logical appeal (facts) to support her strong statements about teenagers being tried as adults.
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